Mission Nutrition

Today I played a game called Mission Nutrition from the KidsHealth website. I think this game is really great for children learning about nutritious foods. The game premise is for the player to make a healthy snack after school. I like the little extra touches of this game like allowing the player to click on the answering machine to hear a message from “mom” encouraging the player to find a healthy snack after school. The player is presented with various challenges to make the best food choice between different types of drinks and foods. What I like about this game is that it is simple to navigate and that it is full of nutritional information. When a player clicks on the correct answer they are often asked follow up questions and provided with extra information about their choice. When the player clicks on the incorrect food/drink item an explanation is given to them about why that is not the best choice and there is no penalty for wrong answers. I do think that this game is pretty limited in that there are only a few challenges in the game. I think the game could be improved if it were expanded to at least six or seven challenges. There are lots of other food items present in the cabinets, in the refrigerator, and there are many more cabinets to have more food items for additional challenges. I would definitely have my students play this game. Right now I am teaching a unit on healthy food choices and the food pyramid to my Pre-kindergarten through second grade students and we could use it as a warm-up or as a review in my classes. I would not recommend this game to my younger students though without an adult help. It involves a lot of reading and some difficult words so I would recommend that parents play this game with their children and use it as a way to engage your child in discussions about healthy foods. (This game was copyrighted 1995-2011 by The Nemours Foundation.)